


Flashlight

by remembersports



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Bye PennyFuck, M/M, also very subtle child abuse, but its still there, its just flashlight by the front bottoms but with reddie, the clown doesnt exist, very subtle homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 08:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12722946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remembersports/pseuds/remembersports
Summary: and then he looks away and says, "It's also all I need."





	Flashlight

**Author's Note:**

> this is literally just the product of me getting upset over tfb and writing a reddie fic about it im sry. im not a good author but i rly liked this idea and i wouldnt mind if someone took this and made it better!!

On Eddie’s 17th birthday, Richie hands him a messily wrapped box. The shit eating grin on Richie’s face almost makes Eddie not want to open it, but he nervously tears off the yellow and blue polka dotted wrapping paper off anyway.

He opens the box and inside there’s a small white camera, Eddie immediately recognizes it as one of the instant cameras that everyone posts pictures of but never actually uses. 

Inside the box there’s also two packages of film, a small tupperware container full of hand painted clothespins and a spool of red embroidery floss. 

Eddie turns to face Richie with a questioning look on his face and even though it didn’t seem possible, Richie’s grin grows wider. He takes the camera from the box that’s gently placed on Eddie’s lap, inserts the film and takes a quick picture of the boy sitting in front of him. 

Eddie watches in pure awe as a picture of himself magically appears before his eyes. He’s so focused on the image that he almost doesn’t notice Richie picking the embroidery floss out of the box. 

Since Eddie’s mother doesn’t allow tape on the walls, the taller boy stands up and settles for tying the ends of the floss to the two adjacent curtain rods, creating a shallow swoop of red thread across the pale yellow wall.

Still smiling and full of joy, Richie pulls out the tupperware container and takes out a light blue clothespin. He motions for Eddie to give him the developed picture and begins to pin it onto the string as soon as the film touches the tips of his too cold fingers. 

Looking down at Eddie and pinching his cheeks, Richie exclaims, “Hey Eds, now you can take pictures of me and hang them in your room!” 

Eddie feels tempted to retort with his daily prayer of ‘don’t call me that’, but the words are stuck on the tip of his tongue and he can’t let them out. All he can do is smile and let out a laugh so full of light and warmth, that it makes Richie’s insides feel like they’re dissolving into fine dust. 

He has to take several deep breaths before being able to convince himself that Eddie is nothing more than his best friend. 

-

Later that night, around 2 am, Eddie wakes up. He doesn’t know why he’s awake, but he spots the camera sitting next to Richie’s ratty mess of hair and forgets to keep asking himself why.

Both boys fell asleep sprawled on the floor, knowing that they both fit on the bed. Eddie doesn’t mind, Richie’s kind of a pain in the ass to sleep with anyway. His limbs always end up tangled with his own and it makes Eddie feel a way that makes him want to vomit out every sweet thing he’s ever consumed. He’s never felt that way before. It’s awful in the best way possible.

Half asleep, Eddie reaches for the camera and fiddles with it for a bit, before leaning over Richie’s sleeping figure and taking a picture of him. 

As he finishes watching the photo develop, he takes another clothespin and places the picture right next to his own.  
The moment his head touches his warm pillow, his eyelids droop and Eddie falls asleep once again.

-

Once Richie turns 18, things start going downhill. His parents don’t want him at home anymore, and they ignore the stack of college acceptance letters that he leaves on the kitchen table. 

Richie knows he wont be able to afford college, financial aid or not, so he gives up on the idea completely. 

He still hangs out with Eddie, in fact, they become almost inseparable. No one sees a problem with it, no one except Richie’s parents. They see a problem in everything he does.

The day that Went catches him staring at Eddie in a way that not even he is able to comprehend, is the day that more colors start appearing on Richie’s skin. It is also the day that Richie starts visiting Eddie more often then ever before.

That night, he leaves around 2 am and carries nothing but a flashlight and an old cassette player with him. He’s pretty sure Went can hear him leaving, so he runs as fast as he can to avoid anymore bruises.

When he gets to Eddie’s house, the small boy already has his bedroom window open and he whisper shouts cheesy motivational phrases to get Richie to climb up to his room faster. 

He notices that Richie is shaking and he tries so hard to make himself believe that his best friend only shivering because he’s cold. But he can’t, and right as he’s about to ask what’s wrong, Richie asks him how he knew that he was coming. 

Eddie scoots closer to Richie, presses them both down until they’re both flat on their backs in Eddie’s soft bed and he listens to the rapid beating of Richie’s heart. 

“I could see a flashlight cutting up the trees behind my house.” 

Richie is satisfied with his answer.

-

Eddie turns 18 and Richie is homeless. 

They don’t hang out too much anymore. Richie dropped out and started surrounding himself with people who are practically mirrored versions of him. 

After Eddie realized Richie didn’t want him in his life anymore, he decided to start following his mother’s plan for him, which he had thrown away many years ago.

He starts hanging out with a group of clean cut boys from school who look like they’d never hurt a fly. 

Everyday after school they go to places that used to be his and Richie’s. Eddie takes pictures of his new friends and uses them to replace the hanging pictures of Richie, which he now has stored away in a shoebox under his bed. 

One day, Eddie is checking his school e-mail. He has dozens upon dozens of letters from colleges and he scrolls through them so fast that he almost misses the three painful richardtozier@dhs.orgs. He hesitates before clicking the first one, but when he does, he almost regrets it. 

All three e-mails are almost exactly the same, Richie just states some bullshit about missing Eddie and “sorting some things out.” 

Eddie doesn’t reply.

-

About a month before graduation, one of Eddie’s new friends, Ben, lets it slip that his girlfriend is throwing a party and another one of Eddie’s friends, Mike, suggests that they should let themselves have some fun before they wrap up their career as high schoolers. 

The boys all agree and a few days later they find themselves outside of Beverly Marsh’s house.

Eddie can feel the buzz of the loud music on his feet and he tries to not regret his decision. 

Inside the music doesn’t feel much better, it makes Eddie’s whole body hurt. He spends a few minutes looking for somewhere quiet before deciding that he’d be better off going outside. 

Eddie exits through the back doors and heads to an empty set of patio chairs. He sits down and plays with the tips of his shoelaces for awhile, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. 

After a few minutes, he hears the door creak and watches a group of dirty looking kids shuffle out of the house. He watches them pull out cigarettes and rolls his eyes. He should probably head back inside before he starts to feel the air contaminate his lungs. Remembering how painful the loud music felt on his body, Eddie decides to stay outside. 

He tries to ignore the people smoking until he hears someone cough loudly, followed by someone sarcastically saying “Hey you’re good at that,” and a too familiar voice jokingly replies “Thanks, its kind of all I got.”

Eddie suddenly feels his skin heat up as soon as the words are in the air. He stiffens in his chair, curls up, closes his eyes and just sits there as quietly as he can.

A few minutes later, Richie sees the sad lump that is his best friend strewn in an uncomfortable position on the stiff plastic of the patio chair. He puts out his cig and heads to the cluster of furniture where Eddie is curled up. He sits by his friend for awhile, staring at golden brown eyed boy as he accidentally falls asleep. 

Richie quickly has Bev give him and Eddie a ride to Eddie’s house, and when they get there, she helps Richie carry the smaller boy up to his room without waking up his overprotective mother. 

When Eddie finally opens his eyes, he’s on the floor of his bedroom, underneath a bunch of blankets, and Richie is laying directly across from him biting his nails nervously.

When Richie seems to realize that Eddie has woken up, he grabs both of his wrists, pulls him in closer and presses his lips to his as softly as he can. After making sure that Eddie doesn’t oppose, he lightly peppers kisses all over his lover’s face. 

He pulls away from Eddie and looks him in the eyes. Meekly, he whispers “Your love is kind of all I’ve got,” and then he looks away and says, “It’s also all I need.” 

Neither of them can believe its taken all night to figure out

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @ emoboyuris!!


End file.
